techPresident - Friendly reminder to Obama: "Do you." - Comments

Thanks Micah, and Thanks Liza

Michael Turk — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:36:06 -0400

My point wasn't to the partisan stripe or the ethnic component, and I hope my comment didn't point anyone down either of those avenues. My bigger point was purely "where's the 'tech' in this TechPresident post?" It just seems out of place on a blog aimed at the use of technology in politics.

When I said it may be appropriate for Afro-Netizen, I should have added, "or any other traditional political blog." Liza's right, this isn't a black thing, it's just not a tech thing.

To Liza's point that this is a "media" issue, I'd still question the relevance because this isn't a media blog. The about page specifically states TechPresident is a "group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign."

There is no web component and there is nothing voter generated affecting the campaign. There is merely a discussion of whether Obama should align himself with basketball.

The Larger Idea

Since Micah left this open for broader discussion, I also disagree with Rabb and Liza.

To quibble with Liza, Jordan is probably the worst possible example she could pick. Despite his success at basketball, Jordan didn't pan out as a baseball player or a coach - two fields traditionally dominated by "gringos" as Liza said. He became a pitchman and made a terrible movie with Bugs Bunny.

Jordan failed to achieve anything at the same level as his basketball skills. He may have made tons of money, and used his notoriety to rent his name for even more money, but invoking him in Liza's context actually serves to pigeonhole Barack.

Rabb's post seems to argue that Barack should play basketball because that's in his nature as a black man and would make caucasians more comfortable with him. Bowling, by his logic, is to tread on the white man's turf and will make us fear him. I like to bowl occasionally, but can't imagine anyone hite or otherwise fearing the black man's 'intrusion' on the sport. That's ridiculous.

It also perpetuates a stereotype that Obama's campaign is all about breaking. It sends the message that he, like Jordan, should stick to the things black folk do because he can't do the things white folk do. Why run for President, then?

I actually took Rabb's post to be satirical for exactly that reason. Reading Liza's post and Micah's defense of it as 'political strategizing' made me question whether I had processed it correctly.

Especially confusing was this comment from Rabb:

I remember that scene on the tarmac back in the spring of 2004 when John Kerry and John Edwards tossed around the pigskin between campaign stops. It was Camelot 2.0. It was a thing of beauty, perhaps shallow beauty. But I knew that for many Americans -- men in particular, I think -- it was a reassuring thing to see otherwise rich Beltway politicos do what so many guys are programmed from pre-pubescence to learn: how to throw a good spiral. I'm not saying this highly gendered programming is right. I'm stating that it is what it is. And if Obama's true to himself, he'd be gripping a basketball -- not clumsily flinging a bowling ball.

I'm not aware of any white men I know who thought better of Kerry and Edwards for throwing the ball around. In fact, what I specifically remember is this picture:

Nobody who has ever played football took comfort in seeing a potential leader of the free world who was that uncomfortable catching a ball. I assumed Rabb's suggestion that someone - anyone - took solace in the fact that Kerry was a 'regular joe throwing the pigskin' was the highest form of humor.

However, if Rabb's suggestion is serious, I think it's insulting to Obama and makes a point about sports that I fundamentally disagree with - white guys should play white sports and black guys should play black sports. Ask Jimmy the Greek how well that kind of thinking stood up.

I think this post is Inappropriate

Jeff Commaroto — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:17:39 -0400

I have to be honest, I was really bothered by this post when I read it. I am glad the comments exist to help show your reasoning but this has nothing to do with tech and I also felt a little uncomfortable in terms of race. I doubt any kind of racist sentiment was the point but after a year of proving he has political skills and isn't just a marketing slogan with a good look, I doubt the direction Senator Obama should go is to spend his time playing basketball when he could be discussing policy.

Also "African"? Where are we doing with this?

Also posting something non-tech simply because a great blogger wrote it isn't a proper justification. If a great cooking blogger wrote about the candidates favorite foods and suggested each of the candidates do a cooking TV show, I wouldn't think that belonged here either.

www.electiongeek.com

"ready to dunk on day one"

andrew boyd — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:59:11 -0400

sports as a "cultural interface" could be a semantic stretch to fit the theme, but don't take the thread down, micah, this is interesting stuff.

re: obama & basketball, i agree with chris.

in fact (and here's a bit of a tech angle), i was wanting to do an obama-in-30-seconds spot mashing footage of him hard on the court in a pick-up game on the South Side of Chicago, with a VO of toughness, savvy, hard-earned street-smarts, "ready to dunk on day one," etc.

but couldn't find any compelling footage, and wasn't exactly in a position to, ah, set up the shot.

but i think the obama campaign should make such an ad. i'm surprised they haven't. get spike to film it, maybe.

one other thought:

could obama have bowled poorly in altoona *deliberately* to make himself seem less perfect and more approachable -- or at least having bowled poorly, use it as a way to take himself down a notch, come across as more vulnerable -- "no Massiah would bowl a 37", etc.

just a thought.

I was going to take this post down but now...

Micah L. Sifry — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:53:47 -0400

I messed up.

Yesterday, when Chris Rabb forwarded his post on Afro-Netizen to me, I immediately thought, "Let's see if he'll let us crosspost this! I've been trying to get more commentary from Chris for a while...he is one of our contributors even if he is too busy to post...and this is an interesting take on the current Obama-Clinton battle for the votes of white men."

My colleague Josh Levy did ask me at the time, but what does this have to do with how Obama is using the Net (not the basketball net), or how the web is using him? My response was, here's an influential blogger using the web to make an interesting point about the dynamics of the race. And up the post went.

This morning I read Mike Turk's comment and I thought, "Shit, I made a mistake. We've succeeded in keeping techPresident focused on a nonpartisan dissection of how the campaigns and the voters are using the web, and need to avoid frankly partisan posts that aren't so much about how they could better use the web, as opposed to plain old political strategizing. Our standing policy has been, we all have other sites where we can post our more partisan stuff. Let's stick to that."

So, I was going to take this post down and instead just link to Afro-Netizen from our Daily Digest today, with an explanation of what happened.

But then Liza Sabater, another techPres blogger, chimed in with her take.

So...now that a conversation has started, I am loath to delete anything. We've had enough civil conversations across partisan lines, both openly and internally, that I trust my bloggers to stay civil. You've heard my take, and my goals for the site. As always, I'm interested in what you think.

Oh Michael, honey, trust me, it's not just a black thing

Liza Sabater — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:36:53 -0400

Chris here is not just referencing the power of basketball but, for the power of basketball as media. It's powerful not because he's black --as he clearly states, one of the best moments of the 2004 campaign was indeed when Kerry and Edwards b-balled a bit.

Basketball in this context is not just MEDIA but we could say that it's culturally an interface. I think it's even more important than football because football is the quintessential gringo sport whereas basketball is transnational --and some of the most interesting crossover icons of our generation have come out of basketball. Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley come to mind.

=================================
Writer and Publisher
www.lizasabater.com
www.culturekitchen.com
www.dailygotham.com

The Point?

Michael Turk — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:28:43 -0400

Sorry, maybe I'm the only one who doesn't get this, but what does this have to do with "TechPresident".

The stated objective of this site is to explore the candidates use of the web. Other than being authored by someone who is obviously online, I don't see any connection between this and that goal.

It may be in line with the mission of Afro-Netizen, but it's clearly out of place here.

Micah, I'd suggest you remove this.

Friendly reminder to Obama: "Do you."

Chris Rabb — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:48:19 -0400

I am not a high-priced, nationally-recognized political guru like Mark Penn, James Carville, or David Axelrod. I am a mere mortal not blessed with modest intelligence wrapped in the seductive candy-coating of white male privilege. I do, however, know this: Obama needs to dunk on camera . . . often!